Dr. Um is the Hallyu representative from the Korean government in the UK. One of my Spanish friend happened to know her when he was dancing at LOKO a few years back and she was doing studies around the effects of Kpop in bridging cultural gaps.
Since this is a Korean language reference, I think it is better for me to translate what gave me impression and what I cite in my final report.
Translation: The cultural policy related to the efforts made by South Korea to improve its national brand can be seen as a cultural diplomatic tool to advocate the Korean Wave or South Korea’s “soft power”. According to Nye, “soft power” is not coercion or payment, but the ability to use attraction to get what you want (Nye 2004). In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea issued the Cultural Diplomacy Manual in 2011, which aims to cooperate with a variety of government cooperation agencies and overseas diplomatic departments to develop effective strategies and harmonious projects, which also deserves attention. The diffusion of the Korean Wave (see page 24 of the Manual) is one of the main topics of diplomatic projects to obtain “soft power” (see Jang and Paik 2012; Nye and Kim 2013)
Totally agree with the explanation of “Soft Power”…
Translation: All these cosmopolitan theories can be used to explain and analyze global K-pop consumption. Cosmopolitanism also offers useful insights into how we understand cosmopolitanism in terms of social and cultural conditions, world outlook, attitude, ability, and sense of identity. If we recognize that the characteristics of the global youth culture in the 21st century are the dynamic diversity and mixture of global culture and local culture (Nilan and Feixa, 2006), K-pop provides a very useful foothold, which can deeply explore the occurrence of transcending national boundaries, participation, appropriation, adaptation, meaning, etc.
Translation: The British K-pop fan group is characterized by its multicultural and multi-ethnic composition, which reflects the demography and cultural diversity of modern British society. The “ethnoscape” (Appadurai 1990) of the UK K-pop fan group is composed of East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, white people and different nationalities. It is worth noting that overseas students, contract workers and other short-term non British residents account for a significant part of the K-pop population.
I cite this in my final report as the demographic evidence. This supports my research question to some extent, because I want to help the people who are newcomers (but not immigration).
Ok, newcomers, this word confuses me a lot. Newcomers, but not only newcomers.
Notes:
Haekyung Um
K-pop on the Global Platform: European Audience Reception and Contexts (Report)